Label:
City Slang Records
Release Date:
13/09/2004

_It is definitely a more dance oriented record than any of the previous
stuff_? says Radio4 drummer Greg Collins. Ah the
famed ?dancier? direction? But is these New Yorkers? definition
of dance enough to make you forget about guitars and shake on towards the disco?
Emphatically yes, and not merely in an Alex Kapranos ?I want guitar music
that little girls can dance to? way. Unlike other would-be indie-dance pretenders,
this is properly danceable stuff; fat basses and catchy percussion beats are punctured
by intoxicating keyboard motifs. Add the previously trademarked elements of politicised
themes and edgy guitar sounds and you have punk funk of the best sort: one that
doesn?t leave an aftertaste of empty clunks or patronising sublimation.

Hardly surprising when you consider what?s been coming out of New York
recently, even less so when compared with the British offering. For every limey
tale of introspection and cultural repression there is an unapologetic explosion
of attitude and opinion from the yanks. Can you visualise a UK version of Radio
4 frontman Anthony Roman, who, when not recording in an underground warehouse
in the bleak ?20C midwinter is to be found hanging in his Brooklyn record
shop, playing with a 16-track Korg digital machine, who has no qualms in writing
lyrics such as ?_all around us/ politics like cancer/ information in
extreme/ never find the answer_? and does so completely earnestly? It
must be all that fluoride in the tap water.

With some claiming that they?re the nearest we?ll get to modern day
Clash, Radio 4?s punk pedigree is well established, but what about
the funk? ?Stealing Of A Nation? sees then band bringing onboard
producer Max Heyes, of Primal Scream and Doves fame, and his influence is clear.
First single and LP opener ?Party Crashers? provides a clear
synopsis of what?s to come, melding powerful beats and keyboards with a
bad-mouthing of moody musical party-poopers. ?State Of Alert?
is another one that could easily get the kids shaking. (despite it?s hopefully
unwitting initial similarity to Spiller?s ?Groovejet?). In fact,
nods to the contemporary cultural scene are all over this record: ?_Fra
Type 1&2_?, which flows nicely into ?The Death Of American
Radio would sit well on a !!! record, while the wonderful ?_Absolute
Affirmation_? with its brilliant opening guitar part, wouldn?t
be out of place on The Strokes?s ?Room On Fire?; ?_(Give
Me All Your) Money_? could have easily made it on to Primal Scream?s
XTRMNTR (if Gillespie and co. fancied a bit of Beach Boys-esque howling); and
to top it all, there?s a recurring vocal twinge of both Albarn and Minogue
every now and then. Confused? Tired? Surely these associations only add.

Down the sweaty club though, it?s easy to forget the underlying motivation
for Radio 4?s work, which is actually a rather fine compliment. And you
are trying to say something when your album cover uses stock images, which remind
us of figures from airplane emergency procedure leaflets, depicting a monochrome
father and son with blacked-out eyes worryingly watching a newsreader with an
equally concealed identity. It seems that Radio 4 are intent on creating a musical
thesis on the return of the culture of fear fifty-five years after its first
appearance in modern US history. The band offer an unemotional criticism of
the media which maintains it and the government that panders to the votes it
commands, typified by ?State Of Alert?: ?_they?ve got
you holding on/ they need you to be uncertain_? Roman barks. While it?s
easy to feel a weary deja vu about yet another band?s rhetoric being slammed
at us, we should actually be compelled to listen even more intensely. Radio
4 aren?t your usual bumbling sloganeerists. Indeed, they belong among the
intelligent handful of acts like REM, whose ?think global, act local?
thesis is an admirable touchstone for any would-be politicized punter or musician.

?_So much of dance music kinda doesn?t have lyrics and if it does
it doesn?t really say anything, so this is something that you can dance
to in a club and we?re trying to say something on top_? succinctly
related the frontman recently. And the mood of the day fits this band. These
are the times when (following historical patterns) American comedians provide
the strongest and most consistent criticism of the incumbent administration,
a time when we need a super-sized human guinea pig to attack one of the world?s
biggest and most offensive corporations, when thousands gather in Trafalgar
Square to witness 1980s popsters update the greatest film about protest ever
made. It is almost like these times have been tailor-made to suit Radio 4?s
message, a bespoke feeling of malaise that reminds us of the communicative purpose
of music.

I am reminded of the words of Antoine De Saint-Exupery, pilot, poet, man: ?_the
meaning of things lies not in the things themselves but in our attitude toward
them_?. Luckily in this case the thing itself sounds pretty good.